Why I'm Arthur
by Son of Whitebeard
Summary: Arthur meets his namesake for the first time and they could not be anymore different.
1. Chapter 1

**Why I'm Arthur**

**By Mathieu Leader**

Arthur is a series of books authored by Marc Brown and is a series produced by Card Nine Entertainment and is not owned by me

Today was the start of the Spring Break and unusually Arthur's dad came to do the pickup from school "Dad where's Kate D.W and Mom?" I asked curiously

Dad turned his head from the driver's seat and said in an oddly stressed voice "We're going on a holiday just you and I to meet a very important person,"

"Cool, Who is it?" Arthur said excitedly

Dave sighed "It'll spoil the surprise," Dave said in a low voice

The car sped along the motorway passed Crown City this was the furthest Arthur had ever been out of the county and they arrived in a small Danish looking town called Belmont. They went down a street called Aylesbury Road till they reached a redbrick townhouse surrounded by shady pine trees the car was parked and dad got out the luggage.

Arthur ran with excitement to the door and rang the doorbell.

He suddenly heard the shuffling of feet and a wheezy chuckle as the door opened revealing a short stooping elderly aardvark dressed in a pinstripe suit with a wiry white goatee and had dark brown eyes.

"I did not think I was going to have your company for a fortnight Dave always unpunctual as usual." The aardvark grumbled

"Hey don't be rude to my dad!" Arthur shouted

"Always respect your elders," giggled the elderly aardvark

Arthur and his dad went inside to the rumpus room where they helped themselves to some cheese and onion crisps and some icy orange juice.

Arthur noticed his dad was oddly quiet and slightly nervous around the elderly constantly fidgeting with his hands Arthur grew bored of the silence.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked curiously to the elderly aardvark

The elderly aardvark who had downed nearly three bottles of beer turned his face to Arthur which was now red "I'm Arthur Sr. your grandpa," he slurred as he got up and then he noticed the bits of crisps smudged into his white carpet and his bushy grey eyebrows furrowed.

He suddenly came over to Arthur and slapped him right on the face leaving a big blotchy purple bruise on his face.

Arthur was stunned at what his own grandpa did to him it was the first time in Arthur's life that he realised that not all adults where nice and kind but some are cruel and mean.

Arthur after a few moments started to sob and shudder simultaneously he was afraid of his newfound family member.

Because of this Arthur dad quickly drove Arthur and himself to a motel just off the freeway.

Later that night Arthur awoke screaming after having nightmares about being in a forest of many big wrinkly palms hitting him till he was black and white.

"What is it son?" Dave asked nervously running from the small sofa bed to visit his distressed son

"D-A-D why did Grandpa hit me?" Arthur sobbed

Dave sighed "Arthur, I know you not understand this as you're a little young. But I do owe an explanation. Your grandpa Arthur was a loyal comrade during the war. Then a good accountant for a big firm then the firm went bust and he and grandma divorced. So we left him and he moved to Belmont and he then remarried and had a daughter called Lizzie. She died of cancer then he took to the drink. Then I and your mum had our wedding he had a crush on your mum and let's say things got a tad out of hand. I protected us from him. But as time march on I thought it was worthwhile to give him a second chance." He said in a calm voice.

"Even though my dad is nasty now I prefer to him to him as I knew him as that hero unafraid on the battle," Dave said in an oddly blank tone.

But then the calmness evaporated and Dave cried and all Arthur could do was to give him a big heartfelt hug.

**Story Notes**

_A few months ago I uncovered that under the Cartoon section I found out this site has an Arthur sect ever since then I wanted to do an Arthur fiction._

_I always wondered why we never saw Dave's Dad and this piece of fiction answers that question and I hope this is a great explanation, and I hope I handled the challenging subject of abuse in a manner of great sensitivity and care that the series would do such a subject in a manner like this._


	2. Chapter 2

**Why I'm Arthur**

**By Mathieu Leader**

Arthur is a series of books authored by Marc Brown and is a series produced by Card Nine Entertainment and is not owned by me

**Chapter Two **

It had been nearly a month since Arthur visited his grandfather for the first time.

Later that day Arthur had played a game of soccer and their coach Mr. Crosswire went away towards the end of the field.

He came back with an old greyish aardvark Arthur felt his stomach knotted as the appearance of Arthur Sr. reared his head this time wearing a white shirt.

"Arthur is he a relative of yours?!" Buster shouted

Arthur's glasses steamed with tears as he ran as he fast as he can.

Arthur ran to the kitchen "Mum granddad's back!" Arthur said excitedly

"I was not thinking dad was going leave the home we had not arranged anything…?" Jane said puzzled

"Ummm… not him the other one the bad one!" Arthur panicked in anger

Arthur went into the hallway and saw one of Mr. Crosswire's limousines and he saw Bailey accompany his grandfather and he saw Grandma Thora came out of the car with D.W and then D.W pointed at the old aardvark.

He smiled and entered the room and Thora followed him in and stared at him with so much hate.

"I don't know how you got here but I'm surprised to see you here after all you put me through!" shrieked Thora

This caused D.W to shake and scamper upstairs

Meanwhile Arthur just stood and watched

"It's all in the past Thora dearie," said Grandpa Arthur in a sickly sweet voice

GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" Thora shouted

Grandpa Arthur then bowed respectfully and made his way to the door and he tipped his trilby and then whispered "I still see Bonnie," then he closed the door behind him.

"Bonnie, may still choose to see you. That's her choice she was too young to remember. But hopefully she'll see you for who you really are a rotten bastard!" Thora answered darkly

"Language please Thora," Arthur's mum Jane gasped in sheer horror

Thora's face reddened with embarrassment seeing Arthur mouth agape.

The next day Arthur took his tray of chicken pot pie and custard flan to the washing station.

Arthur saw the pleasant face of Mrs. Macgrady the lunchlady "Is everything alright," she said in her kind voice

Arthur whispered "No can I talk to you and then to someone else?"

Macgrady pressed her hand on Arthur's shoulder and escorted him into kitchen.

"Ms. Macgrady I came into contact with my granddad and he's a nasty piece of work and being named after him made me feel pretty crummy." Arthur replied sadly

"I know all about that my second husband Rodger was like that. Me and your grandma get on so well because we went through the same thing. Artie this is important you're a good kid but sometimes people start off good but then go bad through circumstance but you can choose to have hope or not. But this may surprise you. Do you remember Skip my nephew who covered for me when I had cancer? Well he was a highflyer in the city went all over. Your grandfather Arthur Goodwin gave my nephew his first job and was quite a stickler for timing and fired him for not being patient a really Scrooge Mcduck you might say." Mcgrady mused over her memories

"Thanks Ms. Macgrady but who do you think it would be good to see? Principal Heaney is at a teaching conference in Crown City. I don't find it easy to talk to Ratburn," Arthur moaned

Macgrady pushed her fingers to her lips and hushed then around went through the backdoors and through the entrance and down two corridors to the right and Arthur sat on the bench where the door read Mr. Cargill Vice-Principal.

The door swung open a thin bald man with wire-framed glasses wearing brown trousers and had black shoes entered the corridor.

"Are you Arthur?" The man inquired with a sense of curiosity

"You're a human!" Arthur gasped in amazement

"I get that a lot when students first see me, I'm Mr. Jack Cargill your Vice-Principal and school counsellor. A role I got last semester when Mrs. Yollanda your old first grade teacher returned to her old post after finding management a bit too stressful. I know humans are rarity round these parts I came here because I like to teach and I like animals," Mr. Cargill replied in a soft husky voice

"Mr. Cargill, I've been having problems at home to see my grandpa who I never saw recently came back into my life and hit me… He's what my grandma a bastard."

Arthur winced fearing a suspension from the Vice-Principal for cursing at school

"This is indeed very serious, and I'm not mad your being angry Arthur you know why because it's a fact of life Arthur that although we adults like to polite and civil, sometimes people are right in using curse words as sometimes these words are apt for the people called these names. I don't want to see any student of mine going through such pain what is needed is mediation." Vice-Principal Cargill said in a sterner tone.

"What's mediation?" Arthur replied confused

"It's where people get in a room and talk about their problems till a solution or a compromise can be met." Vice-Principal Cargill replied in that quiet voice of his.

Meanwhile Arthur Senior was at the Shady Elm hotel looking over a faded leather photo album

He stared at the photo of him and Thora holding a baby Dave and then saw a picture of himself wearing a soldier's outfit with a big broad shouldered bearded aardvark Arthur recognised as his father the pastor Timothy.

Arthur Senior sobbed as he recollected having a nice childhood and became a solider to be proud of and Thora liked a man in uniform, that's why she married him but then came life's downsides he thought to himself perhaps life could have been different if he had taken the commission in the army and saw the world adding adventure from his humdrum conservative lifestyle of Ontario.

Along the hallway esteemed educator Francis Heaney got into bed tired and exhausted and sighed softly.

Later that night he clutched his chest he felt a sudden thrust of pain and then a serene smile came across his face as Francis's life flitted away into the night and tomorrow Lakewood Elementary was about to be brought into the dawn of a new age the principled man of Heaney quiet and unassuming man was to be replaced by a principled man who was anything but unassuming.

Story notes

Given the popularity of my one-shot I decided to extend it.

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Walter Massey the voice of Principal Heaney who died in August

Mrs. Yollanda appeared in the Arthur storybook Arthur's Ears

I added a bit of humour with Thora swearing she's one tough cookie

Arthur Senior's childhood in Canada is based on the fact that Arthur is produced in Canada

What do you think of the Vice-Principal?


	3. Chapter 3

**Why I'm Arthur**

**By Mathieu Leader**

Arthur is a series of books authored by Marc Brown and is a series produced by Card Nine Entertainment and is not owned by me

**Chapter Three:**

The town of Elwood City was shocked and surprised at the unexpected passing of Francis Heaney, esteemed principal of the local elementary school.

It was for this very reason due to many staff and students alike where comfortably numb with grief that the school was shut for the foreseeable future.

The PETA had scheduled a meeting in the town hall with Mrs. Fairchild the Kindergarten teacher acting as the schools representative.  
>"So who's going to lead the school now?" said Mr. Swift a horn-rimmed bespectacled hedgehog father to the fourth grader Norman and that grades parent representative.<p>

Mrs. Fairchild looking nervous her rabbit ears twitching "Mr. Cargill he is Vice-Principal…" she said in a hushed voice.

"What's with the hush Dianne?" Oliver Frenksy laughed heartily

"It's because he's a human," Mr. Molina grumbled

"So?" Oliver replied back in surprise

"Oliver I guess you don't know what humans are like my uncle was put in a cage for their amusement," Molina answered blistering with rage.

Dr Fugue the chairman of the PETA rose from his chair "Don't be racist Ramon we are trying to hold a civil civic meeting."

Then Ramone left the town council room angry leaving the meeting of ten shocked and slightly frightened at his outburst.

Bitzi Baxter was covering the event "This is not how Francis would of wanted the meeting to go, especially since his funeral is in five days." piped up in a solemn reserved voice

"Indeed Mrs. Baxter I recommend we simply put it to the vote all those wanting Mr. Cargill to take the position raise your hands.

Only four people raised their hands Mr. Swift, Dr. Fugue Mr. Frensky and finally Bitzi meanwhile the rest of the group of Mrs. Fairchild, Mr. Deegan Prunella's and Rubella's father and the council's education advisor, and Mrs. Tibble firmly raised their hands in protest.

Dr. Fugue sighed

"The motion carries it is the PETA'S decision that Mr. Cargill will not attain the position of principal," Dr. Fugue spoke tersely with an air of resentment

Oliver scratched his head in sheer disbelief at how racist the small city of Elwood actually was and that within the sixteen years Heaney had been a principled man how Heaney's death was the catalyst for some very nasty unpleasantness coming to Elwood City.


End file.
